Illegal is illegal. She was there to answer a criminal complaint.
A Charlotte woman and her 16-year-old son, who are both involved in a domestic-violence dispute, were arrested in the Mecklenburg courthouse by federal immigration agents after they turned up for a hearing, their attorneys said.
The July 9 arrests by U..S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, or ICE, took place outside a fourth-floor courtroom set aside that day for domestic violence cases. The incident is expected to intensify a debate over where ICE enforcement occurs and who the agency targets.
About 30 supporters of the woman and her son gathered in Marshall Park on Friday to protest their treatment.
Through an interpreter, the mother, identified by her attorneys only by her first name of Maria, described being led handcuffed from the courthouse as “one of the most humiliating and embarrassing experiences” of her life. The Observer does not identify possible victims of domestic violence.[…]
Maria was scheduled to be in court on July 9 as the defendant in a misdemeanor criminal complaint filed by her former fiance. That case had been preceded by a domestic-violence complaint in which the 16-year-old son had accused the former fiance of severely beating him, Little said. […]
ICE spokesman Bryan Cox told the Observer on Friday that Maria became an immigration target due to a criminal charge filed against her.
“It is not in dispute. This person was not a victim or a witness. That day, she was showing up in the courthouse as a criminal defendant in a criminal case. It’s apples and oranges,” Cox said.
Maria, a native of Colombia, had entered the country legally in August 2016, but her visa expired that November, Cox said.
On the morning of July 9, Little said, District Judge David Strickland agreed to delay the case at which the son was scheduled to testify.
When Little came out of the courtroom to meet with his clients, he said he saw them being handcuffed by two men in plain clothes. Maria was hysterical and calling out for help in Spanish, he said.
“I literally ran up to them,” Little said. “I said, ‘What’s going on?’ (One of the ICE agents) said, ‘Get back, get back,’ and he tells me he doesn’t have to tell me anything. I said, ‘Yes, you do. She’s my client.’ “